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20 Apr 2015, 07:53
2
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Difficulty:

65% (hard)

Question Stats:

55% (01:06) correct 45% (01:12) wrong based on 256 sessions

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Last year, Company X paid out a total of $1,050,000 in salaries to its 21 employees. If no employee earned a salary that is more than 20% greater than any other employee, what is the lowest possible salary that any one employee earned? (A)$40,000
(B) $41,667 (C)$42,000
(D) $50,000 (E)$60,000

Kudos for a correct solution.

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Re: Last year, Company X paid out a total of $1,050,000 in salaries to its [#permalink] ### Show Tags 21 Apr 2015, 09:44 2 1 Bunuel wrote: Last year, Company X paid out a total of$1,050,000 in salaries to its 21 employees. If no employee earned a salary that is more than 20% greater than any other employee, what is the lowest possible salary that any one employee earned?

(A) $40,000 (B)$41,667
(C) $42,000 (D)$50,000
(E) $60,000 Kudos for a correct solution. Let's imagine that $$x$$ is max salary and $$\frac{x}{1.2}$$ is min salary. As we know that total amount of salary equal to 1,050,000 we can write equation: $$20x+\frac{x}{1.2}=1,050,000$$ (20 employees with max salary and one with min salary: if we take 20 employees with min salary we will receive bigger number and as we need least possible salary we should take 20 max salaries) $$24x + x = 12,600,000$$ $$x = 50,400$$ and this is max salary $$50,400 / 1.2 = 42000$$ And our answer is C _________________ EMPOWERgmat Instructor Status: GMAT Assassin/Co-Founder Affiliations: EMPOWERgmat Joined: 19 Dec 2014 Posts: 12425 Location: United States (CA) GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49 GRE 1: Q170 V170 Re: Last year, Company X paid out a total of$1,050,000 in salaries to its  [#permalink]

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21 Apr 2015, 21:41
2
Hi All,

This question is remarkably similar to the following Official GMAC question:

a-certain-city-with-a-population-of-132-000-is-to-be-divided-into-11-v-191085.html?hilit=population%20GREATEST#p1464387

The various methods to solve it are exactly the same (including the opportunity to TEST THE ANSWERS).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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Special Offer: Save $75 + GMAT Club Tests Free Official GMAT Exam Packs + 70 Pt. Improvement Guarantee www.empowergmat.com/ ***********************Select EMPOWERgmat Courses now include ALL 6 Official GMAC CATs!*********************** Manager Joined: 15 May 2014 Posts: 62 Re: Last year, Company X paid out a total of$1,050,000 in salaries to its  [#permalink]

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22 Apr 2015, 05:56
Assume the $$21^{st}$$ guy receives the lowest salary $$x$$
and everybody else receives $$x+\frac{20}{100}x$$ salary
$$x\,+\,20*(1.2x)\,=\,10,50,000$$
$$x\,+\,24x\,=\,10,50,000$$
$$25x\,=\,10,50,000$$
$$x\,=\,\frac{10,50,000}{25}\,=\,42,000$$

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22 Apr 2015, 09:55
2
[quote="Bunuel"]Last year, Company X paid out a total of $1,050,000 in salaries to its 21 employees. If no employee earned a salary that is more than 20% greater than any other employee, what is the lowest possible salary that any one employee earned? (A)$40,000
(B) $41,667 (C)$42,000
(D) $50,000 (E)$60,000

Employee 1 earned $x(say) Employee 2 will not earn more than$1.2x
Therfore, to minimize the salary of any one employee, we need to maximize the salaries of the other 20 employees
(1.2x*20)+x=1,050,000
Solving for x=$42,000 Answer C Math Expert Joined: 02 Sep 2009 Posts: 49303 Re: Last year, Company X paid out a total of$1,050,000 in salaries to its  [#permalink]

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27 Apr 2015, 03:53
Bunuel wrote:
Last year, Company X paid out a total of $1,050,000 in salaries to its 21 employees. If no employee earned a salary that is more than 20% greater than any other employee, what is the lowest possible salary that any one employee earned? (A)$40,000
(B) $41,667 (C)$42,000
(D) $50,000 (E)$60,000

Kudos for a correct solution.

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

Here ask yourself the following questions:

1) The numbers do not have to be integers.

2) Zero is theoretically possible (but probably constrained by the 20% difference restriction)

3) Numbers absolutely can repeat (which will be very important)

4) What’s your strategy? If you want the LOWEST possible single salary, then use your answer to #3 (they can repeat) and give the other 20 salaries the maximum. That way your calculation looks like:

x + 20(1.2x) = 1,050,000

Which breaks out to 25x = 1,050,000, and x = 42000. And notice how important the answer to #3 was – by knowing that numbers could repeat, you were able to quickly put together a smart strategy to minimize one single value.

The larger lesson is crucial here, though – these problems are often (but not always) fairly basic mathematically, but derive their difficulty from a situation that limits some options or allows for more than you’d think via integer restrictions, the possibility of zero, and the possibility of repeat values. Ask yourself these four questions, and your answer to the first three especially will maximize your efficiency on the strategic portion of the problem.
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06 Feb 2018, 18:36
Bunuel wrote:
Last year, Company X paid out a total of $1,050,000 in salaries to its 21 employees. If no employee earned a salary that is more than 20% greater than any other employee, what is the lowest possible salary that any one employee earned? (A)$40,000
(B) $41,667 (C)$42,000
(D) $50,000 (E)$60,000

Since the sum of all the salaries is a fixed amount (which is given to be $1,050,000), the lowest possible salary is obtained when all the salaries besides the lowest one are maximized. Since the greatest possible difference between any two salaries in this company is 20%, all the salaries besides the lowest salary should be 20% more than the lowest salary. We can let the lowest salary = x and the greatest = 1.2x and create the following equation: x + 20(1.2x) = 1,050,000 x + 24x = 1,050,000 25x = 1,050,000 x = 42,000 Answer: C _________________ Jeffery Miller Head of GMAT Instruction GMAT Quant Self-Study Course 500+ lessons 3000+ practice problems 800+ HD solutions Intern Joined: 25 Nov 2017 Posts: 6 Re: Last year, Company X paid out a total of$1,050,000 in salaries to its  [#permalink]

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14 Apr 2018, 02:51
Tmoni26 wrote:
Let x be the minimum salary,

Therefore, the maximum salary would be x * 0.2 + x = 1.2x
To get the minimum value for x, we have to maximise the value of all the other salaries, therefore we make all the other 20 people earn 1.2x

Total Amount
So we have x + 20(1.2x) = 1,050,000
x+ 24x = 1,050,000
25x = 1,050,000
x = 42,000

Dear Tmoni26,
You've explained the logic very concisely, clearly & perfectly.
Made perfect sense & helped me understand in least possible words.
Thank you!

Regards,
Saumya
Re: Last year, Company X paid out a total of $1,050,000 in salaries to its &nbs [#permalink] 14 Apr 2018, 02:51 Display posts from previous: Sort by # Last year, Company X paid out a total of$1,050,000 in salaries to its

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